Evolution of subhalo orbits in a smoothly growing host halo potential

The orbital parameters of dark matter (DM) subhaloes play an essential role in determining their mass-loss rates and overall spatial distribution within a host halo. Haloes in cosmological simulations grow by a combination of relatively smooth accretion and more violent mergers, and both processes will modify subhalo orbits. To isolate the impact of the smooth growth of the host halo from other relevant mechanisms, we study subhalo orbital evolution using numerical calculations in which subhaloes are modelled as massless particles orbiting in a time-varying spherical potential. We find that the radial action of the subhalo orbit decreases over the first few orbits, indicating that the response to the growth of the host halo is not adiabatic during this phase. The subhalo orbits can shrink by a factor of similar to 1.5 in this phase. Subsequently, the radial action is well conserved and orbital contraction slows down. We propose a model accurately describing the orbital evolution. Given these results, we consider the spatial distribution of the population of subhaloes identified in high-resolution cosmological simulations. We find that it is consistent with this population having been accreted at z less than or similar to 3, indicating that any subhaloes accreted earlier are unresolved in the simulations. We also discuss tidal stripping as a formation scenario for NGC 1052-DF2, an ultra diffuse galaxy significantly lacking DM, and find that its expected DM mass could be consistent with observational constraints if its progenitor was accreted early enough, z greater than or similar to 1.5, although it should still be a relatively rare object.

Automated summary

The orbital parameters of dark matter subhaloes play a crucial role in determining their mass-loss rates and spatial distribution within a host halo. Research shows that subhalo orbits shrink and slow down as the host halo grows, and the distribution of subhaloes in high-resolution cosmological simulations is consistent with accretion at z less than or equal to 3.